#lost in path and hope; Karen => THREAD

[rrenounced]

@pkmnsdarkqueen continued

Helping drunk people was something she commonly handled. Better she take care of them, and make sure they get some place safe than have them wander about to hurt someone. Also, unlike most she wouldn't be immediately calling the cops on him.

No all she saw now was a struggling man filled with paranoia instead of some high ranking ex mafia member.

Except while he was drunk out of his mind, Karen was utterly exhausted. She'd been awake for about 48 hours by now managing elite duties, bar duties, and pikes of paper work that she was running thin. Thus everything was sending her on edge as well such as the ratatta that skittered panicked from the now scattered pile of trash.

"Maybe I jumped to conclusions on that."

She muttered taking a banana peel that smacked against her shoulder to took it in a bin.

Hopelessness.

He hated the feeling, bubbling in the back of his throat, threatening to suffocate him.

Where was he? How did he get here? Did it matter? No one would miss him.

Every time he tried to help out, he just made things worse anyways.

Vision spinning, he keeled with a small groan.

His Tangrowth rumbled lowly, extending its arms to catch and pull him across its body.  Judging by the lack of any real reaction, its a common occurrence.  It even made sure to pick up his hat.

It proceeded to stare at Karen, uncertain of how this engagement would end.    

[extasiswings]

Buddie- I'm a sucker for kissing in the rain! But 3 and 29 are good too. Love your fics!

I was going somewhere with this...and then I was going somewhere totally different...and anyway I’m not really sure what this is, but it’s Something. 

It rains the day of Maddie and Chim’s wedding. Their meticulously planned, beautiful, outdoor wedding. But if the happy couple is thrown at all by the abrupt change in their plans, Eddie certainly can’t tell.

Halfway through the reception though, he definitely needs a break from the noise and the very full room, and so he leaves Christopher under Karen’s watchful eye and goes wandering. He winds up by the door that opens out to the garden—where the ceremony was originally supposed to be—and spends several long moments watching the rain fall, the noise of the reception still echoing down the hall, but dulled, distant. The main sound is the rain against the roof.

That’s where Buck finds him—because of course Buck finds him, he wouldn’t have expected anything less—leaning against the door frame and looking out, lost in thought.

“Hey,” Buck greets, shoving his hands into his pockets. “Want some company?”

The thing is, anyone else, Eddie would say no. But somewhere along the line, Buck became the exception. Buck isn’t just anyone, he’s...Buck. Eddie wants him everywhere, in every part of his life. And that’s part of the problem, isn’t it? Eddie doesn’t know what he’s supposed to do with that, whether to thread his fingers through Buck’s and kiss him senseless or whether pushing for more would break them.

So he bites back the urge, the same way he’s been doing for over a year, and just says—

“Sure.”

—and goes back to watching the rain.

“It was a nice ceremony,” he adds after a minute. “They seem like they’re going to be really happy—not that that’s a surprise, they already were, but—” He shrugs and trails off, but he can feel Buck’s eyes on him, watching carefully.

“You know, I don’t think you’ve ever told me about yours,” Buck says, and Eddie glances over in surprise.

“My wedding?”  He shakes his head. “You don’t want to hear about my wedding.”

“Sure I do—come on.”

And because Eddie can’t seem to deny Buck anything lately, he wets his lips and casts his mind back.

“It was hot,” he admits. “Middle of summer and the a/c was broken in the church at that which didn’t help. I spent the whole time feeling like I might pass out, but I’m not entirely sure whether that was because of the heat or the fact that I was...terrified.”

There’s a rose bush directly in his line of sight and his eyes track the path of the droplets that collect and drip from the edge of one crimson petal.

“Shannon barely made it down the aisle at all—she was having these bouts of really awful morning sickness at the time, I felt so bad—but she did, and it was all very...traditional after that? With the mass and the vows and the blessings and all that.”

“Doesn’t really sound like you,” Buck says quietly.

Eddie lets out a slow breath and catches his lower lip between his teeth.

“It wasn’t,” he admits. “Wasn’t either of us really, but we thought it was what we were supposed to do, so it’s what we did.”

“Do you think—” Buck starts, only to cut himself off. Eddie glances over, raising an eyebrow.

“Do I think I’ll ever get married again?” He guesses, and Buck nods. Eddie could almost laugh because once again the answer is no, but. Because he can’t picture himself spending the rest of his life with anyone but Buck. Can’t imagine wanting to make vows or put on a ring for anyone else. And he knows how ridiculous it is to feel like that about someone he isn’t even dating, but—it is what it is.

“I don’t know,” he says finally. “Maybe. With the right person.”  His lips curve faintly, as he adds— “I wouldn’t mind getting the chance to have a first dance. Missed that one the first time around. Actually, come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve ever danced at a wedding. At least not with anyone I actually wanted to dance with.”

Buck is quiet for a moment, then starts taking off his jacket. Eddie blinks.

“What are you doing?”

Buck drapes the suit jacket across the windowsill and reaches for the door handle.

“Come on.”

“It’s raining,” Eddie points out, and Buck smiles.

“So? It’s water—you afraid of getting a little wet?” He teases. And then he slips out into the garden, leaving Eddie behind. Eddie watches from a distance as the raindrops darken Buck’s crisp, navy shirt, and ultimately shucks his own jacket and follows.

It’s nice—the air is cool and fresh, a nice change from the stuffiness of the reception hall, and it smells of wet earth and growing things.

“You know, Maddie and Chim were supposed to have their first dance out here,” Buck says casually. Maybe too casually, because there’s an edge to his voice like he’s forcing it a bit.

“Yeah?” Eddie asks.

“Yeah.” As he watches, Buck swallows hard, and a bead of water streams down his neck before vanishing into his collar.

Eddie’s struck with the urge to trace the same path with his tongue. And he’s distracted enough, that he almost misses it when Buck says—

“You should dance with me.”

Eddie’s gaze snaps up.

“Here?”

Buck shrugs and holds out his hand and for the first time, Eddie catches the nervousness that flickers across his face. It does something to him—seeing that. It turns the key in a door he’s tried to keep firmly shut, releasing a swirl of want and love and desperate hope to bubble up in his chest.

Eddie licks his lips and tastes the rain.

“Why?” He asks, even as he takes Buck’s hand and steps in close.

“You said you’ve never danced at a wedding,” Buck replies.

“Buck.”

Their eyes meet and hold. Water drops down the back of Eddie’s neck and it’s clarifying. The world around them is still and silent but for the patter of rain, but Eddie isn’t afraid of the silence.

It feels like possibility.

“And I didn’t want you to dance with anyone else,” Buck adds. “Just me.”

Eddie’s heart skips. “Just you, huh?”

Buck’s eyes drop down to Eddie’s lips in a way that can’t be mistaken, and Eddie curls the fingers of his free hand around Buck’s damp tie and tugs him in to kiss him.

They get thoroughly soaked.

[diazboys]

i like watching the days go by with you | 2k words | buddie | pre-relationship, domestic fluff | ao3

written for Eddie Diaz Week 2021 | Day 2: “This is nice.” + soft

.

A quiet but persistent buzzing noise coming from somewhere behind his head is what startles Eddie awake. He peaks one eye open but his vision is still fuzzy from sleep so he almost knocks over the lamp as he tries to locate his phone. Eventually, he manages to silence the alarm. With a sigh, he falls back onto the pillow, blinking and waiting until he feels awake enough to roll out of bed. The curtains are slightly parted and the already bright L.A. sun is creeping up the floorboards, painting a narrow path across the bed and widening up on the wall behind Eddie. He smiles to himself. 

At the beginning of their group sleepover — or quarantine, if you wish — in Buck’s apartment Eddie made a small comment that getting blinded by the sun first thing in the morning wasn’t really his favourite thing to do. Since then, the curtains were kept shut every morning. Sometimes, when Eddie stirred awake as Buck was getting up, he saw his friend walk towards the window to peek outside. And every single time he parted the curtains just the tiniest bit, mindful of Eddie’s half-serious comment. The thoughtfulness made Eddie’s heart soar. 

This whole living at Buck’s place thing has been… interesting so far. The sleeping arrangements seemed like a challenge at first but they’ve dealt with it pretty quickly. On the first day when they showed up on Buck’s doorstep, he had an argument with Hen about giving her the bed. Unsurprisingly, Buck lost and Hen happily took the couch. Chim, only slightly less happily took the mattress they've placed downstairs. There was a perfectly good mattress waiting for Eddie in the loft as well. 

But the problem was that… he never really used it. That first night they were all tired after their shift, Chim and Hen already snoring quietly downstairs. Eddie moved over to the corner of the room, with every intention of crashing there for the night. But then Buck made a casual comment about the bed being big enough and that they could share if Eddie wanted.

And Eddie wanted. For a lot of reasons. Though the one that sounded the most reasonable at that moment was the fact that the bed was way more comfortable and required much less preparation than the mattress. And Eddie’s brain was too tired to tell him why sharing a bed with Buck was a dumb idea. ‘Having some kind of not-strictly-platonic feelings for Buck’ would definitely make it to the top of the list. But there was no list at the time, so Eddie just snuck under the covers on the left side of the bed that Buck left for him. They were both out within minutes. 

And then Eddie just… didn’t bother with the mattress. Even though — or maybe because — on that first morning he woke up well rested and content, with Buck’s arm thrown loosely across his waist. It was nice. It took all of Eddie’s willpower not to roll over, closer into the warm embrace. Neither he, nor Buck commented on it and they let it be. Eddie was more than sure that Hen and Chim noticed — they noticed everything — but except a curious glance or five every now and then, they didn’t say anything. They kept up the whole thing even when Hen decided to go back home to Karen and the kids. Chim took the couch instead, his mattress had been put away. And Eddie stayed in Buck’s bed.

So here Eddie is now, sprawled on said bed with a stupid smile on his face, staring at the curtains like it’s the best thing ever. It certainly is great and lets him wake up without feeling like someone’s flashing a torch into his eyes. But it’s not directly responsible for the stupid smile, he must admit. 

It takes him another minute before he finally wills his body to move. The right side of the bed is already vacant when he rolls over onto his stomach. He sends a glance downstairs. Buck is bustling around the kitchen, earphones in so he won’t disturb anyone. Eddie is pretty sure that he’s listening to this science slash comedy podcast he’s been obsessed with lately. He can’t really remember the name but he’s pretty sure there was a “fish” in it.

With one more content sigh, Eddie rolls out of bed and makes his way downstairs barefoot. As he walks closer, his brain recognises the scents coming from the kitchen. Coffee and something delicious that smells of tomatoes and fresh basil. His smile grows even bigger. He’s spent enough mornings here to hope that there’s a cup of freshly brewed coffee waiting for him as well.

Before Eddie can make a beeline for the coffee machine and check, Buck turns to take something from the kitchen island. His eyes skip to Eddie and his whole face lights up in a smile. Eddie’s breath hitches but he reciprocates the gesture. How can he not when Buck is looking like that, all happiness and soft curls? Eddie’s right hand twitches by his side. There’s a sudden need in him to run his fingers through Buck’s hair, to see if it’s as soft as it looks like. To stop himself from doing something stupid, Eddie grabs the barstool and sits down. He stuffs his hands under his tights, for good measure.

“Morning,” Buck greets, taking his earphones out and putting them in his pocket.

Before Eddie can say anything, a cup of coffee is placed right in front of him. He inhales the scent and lets out a happy little hum that makes Buck laugh.

“Hildy sends her regards,” Buck jokes, laughing even harder at the unimpressed look on Eddie’s face. 

Really, it’s about time Buck let that go. It wasn’t Eddie’s fault that he had been startled, hearing a strange voice saying “Hello, Eddie” as he walked into the kitchen that first morning. And he already apologised for the mug he dropped. To Buck’s credit, he did disable the voice greetings after that. Now the cursed machine was just… quietly lurking from its place on the counter.

“Thanks, Buck,” he says sincerely after all, deciding to ignore the comment. 

Buck only shrugs with a smile and turns back to whatever is sizzling on the pan. Eddie wraps his hands around the mug and takes a sip. Another content hum escapes his lips before he can stop it.

“This is nice,” Eddie says.

He’s not even sure what exactly he’s referring to. The coffee, the slow and calm atmosphere of the morning, the sight of Buck in a soft hoodie, pushing an omelette towards Eddie? The domesticity of it all that makes Eddie’s heart ache? It’s all of it and probably more. If only Christopher was around to join them in the kitchen right now, to ask for pancakes for breakfast and complain about his online classes or tell them about the dream he’s had. Then, Eddie would be completely and thoroughly happy. 

And this is a thought that both excites and terrifies him at the same time.

But it’s a bit less scary when Buck is standing right in front of him, his big arms resting against the counter as he leans forward. He’s looking at Eddie with those soft eyes and a beautiful smile on his lips. The only thing Eddie can do is to stare back and hope that his face is better at controlling his emotions than his heart is.

It would be so easy to just lean forward a little and—

“God, you two make me miss Maddie even more,” Chimney says from somewhere behind Eddie’s back.

His sudden appearance startles Eddie enough that he pushes a fork off the counter. It falls to the floor with a loud clatter and he quickly ducks to retrieve it.

“I’ll start giving you plastic utensils at some point, I swear,” Buck says, shaking his head at Eddie. His eyes are laughing, though, so Eddie knows he’s not being serious.

“Oh fuck off, I apologised for that mug already. And it was just a fork this time, don’t be dramatic,” Eddie rolls his eyes at him but he’s smiling as well. Then he turns and adds, “Morning, Chim.” 

Chimney is freshly showered and pours himself a cup of coffee. He’s also watching them with a raised eyebrow and an amused smile on his face. Eddie tries his best to ignore that, just like he ignored Chim’s comment. 

“Um, so,” Eddie starts, wanting to steer the conversation onto a different track. “What facts did they have today?” he asks, pointing his chin at Buck’s phone laying on the counter. Just like he expected, there’s a paused episode of that No Such Thing as a Fish podcast.

“Oh, did you know that there is a type of pasta that only 3 women in the world can make?” Buck’s eyes light up in excitement. “It’s some fancy one they make in Sardinia and it’s called threads of God. The recipe has been passed from mother to daughter for ages.”

“What if they run out of daughters and have a son?” Eddie asks.

“It’s fine, cause the recipe isn’t even secret or anything,” Buck says, pointing the spatula at him. “It’s just a pain in the ass to make. They’ve been trying to teach people how to do it but it’s just hard enough that most of them just give up.”

Chimney chuckles at that around a mouthful of omelette. "You should totally try. I wouldn't be surprised if you'd manage to do it, out of sheer stubbornness."

And Buck — both because he's interested and because he rarely steps down from a challenge — reaches for his phone and starts googling for the recipe and reads out whatever he finds.

It sounds really interesting. And not only because Eddie has a soft spot for Buck and the little tidbits of information he gathers and then excitedly shares with everyone who wants to listen. Eddie always does. Some people just shrug or roll their eyes at Buck, but Eddie really admires his interest, the childlike curiosity about the world that Buck has. There are so many things Eddie admires about him.

All things considered, Eddie shouldn’t be surprised that somewhere along the way he has fallen in love with his best friend.

It catches him a bit off guard, being able to put a name to the feeling that has been blooming in his heart for so long. But it doesn’t make him panic, at least no more than having feelings for his best friend already did. It’s more of a relief, really. It all makes sense now. 

Eddie doesn’t even realise that he’s been smiling and staring at the half-eaten omelette in front of him until his phone buzzes with a new text message. It shakes him out of his thoughts and he opens it to find a photo from Christopher.

"Everything okay, Eddie?" he hears Buck ask.

Raising his head, Eddie is met with a slightly worried gaze. He smiles, showing Buck the text he's just gotten.

"Yeah, Christopher's just complaining about his history assignment," he explains.

Buck chuckles at the photo of Chris' pouting face as he holds a history textbook and 'There's too many dates!' with a row of angry emojis written underneath. "We should FaceTime him later. I miss that little rascal."

Eddie doesn't point out that they've done that barely two days ago. Instead, his smile grows bigger as he agrees. He knows for a fact that Chris misses his Buck just as much and that the two of them have been texting a lot.

For some reason, Chimney sighs, rolls his eyes as Eddie glances at him, and leaves the kitchen with his coffee cup still in hand. Eddie's not sure what that was about. He doesn't have time to dwell on it though, because Buck drops on the barstool next to him with his own breakfast, their knees knocking together as he makes himself comfortable. Sipping the last of his coffee, Eddie bites the inside of his cheek to stop a smile.

He really could get used to spending all of his mornings like this.

[youngster-monster]

The color of the wheat fields

Out of all the books her mother used to read her, The Little Prince had always been Karen's favorite. Adventure called to her in the way it called to every child; she drew maps of the world, clumsy and colored, on which was carefully traced the itinerary from Vermont to The Desert — because surely there could only be one of them in the world.

She used to dream about the desert, about foxes and snakes and roses on faraway stars. She sat in her cardboard boxes-plane, with a wool hat and swimming goggles, pretending to be both a space princess and the daring pilot lost in the wild. She learned to draw the best sheep anyone had ever seen, and then roses and snakes and foxes too, so the sheep wouldn't be all alone.

She had grown up, eventually, and the cardboard plane and childish drawings were forgotten in the attic with all the rest of her (and, eventually, Kevin's) childhood. Teenagers don't have time for toys or play-pretend, college students even less so.

But the book had kept its place in her bookshelf, pages creased from being dogeared so many times, cover falling out and being stitched back on again. It was always the first book she put up after each move, and often the first one she read during her first night in a new place, the best cure to the bittersweet taste of homesickness. She carried it with her everywhere — in her suitcase during family holidays, to the hospital waiting room that one time Mary, her college roommate, broke her ankle and had to be driven to the ER, in her bag when she went to work. It was always there, in case she needed it.

Adulthood had yet to prove to be more than a succession of increasingly painful headaches, but it had yet to steal the fun from this book. If anything else it had enhanced it; Saint-Exupéry's personal brand of philosophy had meant much to her, in many different ways, for as long as she had known enough about the alphabet to decipher the story all by herself.

Wesley, on the other hand… Wesley had changed that.

It felt wrong to handle the book, which was nothing if not a tale of kindness in the face of life's everyday cruelty, with hands still heavy with the weight of a gun. She felt as if there was still dried blood stuck under her nails, despite the fact that his blood never even brushed the touch of her fingers, and she feared the marks she would leave on the pages. The bloody fingerprints of a murderer. Innocence had died with a full clip discharged in a monster's chest — innocence had died with blood not her own on her clothes and the empty-eyed stare of a dead body. This book, this story, was all there was left of it. She refused to be the one to taint it with the smell of gunpowder, the darkness of death which clung to her like a too-large coat.

She did not regret it. She only wished there had been another way out — a way to keep her hands clean and herself safe. A way that would not have disappointed small Karen quite so much.

So The Little Prince had been dropped at the bottom of a box, covered by the clothes she had worn that day, and hidden under her bed. Out of sight, out of mind — out of reach.

But then Frank Castle happened. Bloody, bruised, battered Frank, with his voice like a thunderstorm heard from far away, rumbling in his chest and unable to quite escape it.

She had grown fond of him, a man so dangerous yet so close to his breaking point, a glass sculpture balanced at the edge of a tall shelf. She had traded curiosity for understanding, had lost fear along the way and replaced it by an odd sort of care for him.

Had found it again, hidden like a forgotten bill between the pages of an old book, folded in a tight corner behind her ribs, when he had looked up at her — a wounded man at his feet, more fitting in that tableau than ever before — and told her he was already dead. Fear felt like an old, unwelcome friend, or an ember stuck in her throat, fire eating at her flesh and slowly smothering her with the smoke.

Fear had not come alone.

At first, yes, she had been scared. For the colonel, who was an asshole but who deserved justice all the same. For her. For him. For the path he was threading on, combat boots leaving bloody footprints in his tracks.

And then she had been angry, because how dare he makes her care? Her heart was wounded enough as it was, a mass of scar tissue and bruised and fresh paper cuts that still, stubbornly, refused to break. She didn't need his trauma, his blood lust, didn't need him to come by and throw a few glass shards in the mix.

But, in the end, all she had been left with was sadness. A sort of grief, perhaps, for the man he used to be, the man he could have been. A man she wanted to keep, to hold on to with two hands and never let go, until she realized she never had him to begin with.

Sadness, for Karen Page, had one simple cure, held between the pages of a downright antique hardcover edition of The Little Prince.

For the first time in months, in the first grey light of an insomnia-induced early morning, Karen rummaged through the cardboard box under her bed and dug out an old battered book. It had the worn corners and half-faded illustrations of a well-loved story carried from childhood to adulthood whole by sheer affection for it — and a few haphazard patch jobs. Her name was still written on the first blank page in red crayon; her favorite passages still underlined in pencil, careful straight lines under words she could still quote by heart.

A rock pile ceases to be a rock pile the moment a single man contemplates it, bearing within him the image of a cathedral.

She wondered, for a moment, if a murderer remained such after a foolish wannabe reporter had observed him and seen a good man in his place.

The Little Prince had always been her favorite way to deal with emotional turmoil. Nothing seemed to matter quite as much after reading the quest of a young boy through space and back again, and once she turned the last page, she found herself a little more settled, a little less likely to have a full blown panic attack.

It didn't mean she forgave Frank. That wasn't something she envisaged herself doing anytime soon, if ever. But she could accept his decision — it had, after all, basically nothing to do with her. What was she to him but a bait, an obstacle on his warpath? Not much, that was what. And she found that she was okay with that.

Karen, thrill-seeker extraordinaire, had been lost to student debts and soul-sucking jobs a long time ago. Her recent come back from the grave to haunt Karen, responsible if mildly traumatized adult, had only served to remind her that this was not the life for her.

She would gladly leave vigilante-chasing to bolder, braver people. She was quite fine as she was, not being shot and never seeing the blank hospital walls from the point of view of a patient.

Unfortunately it seemed that, even when Karen did not look for danger, danger still, against all odds, looked for Karen.

Fear came in many flavors, so to speak. It came as a burn, an all-consuming wildfire trapped behind wide, wild eyes; the survival instinct inherent to everyone who was not a vigilante. It came as the hot-blooded rush of adrenaline when your mind, thrown into its most basic fight-or-flight response, decided offense was the best defense, bloody knuckles and copper sharp on your tongue.

Karen found herself prey to one last kind of fear, one she had experience once before, in a warehouse empty of everything but a table, a monster, and a gun. A freezing kind of fear, frost climbing her spine and turning it to steel, the kind of fear that slowed down time into one moment of pure clarity.

In that second in the eye of the cyclone, two thoughts came to her.

The first was that no amount of whits and stalling would save her from this particular situation. An old man died from a bullet through his forehead for screaming too loud and Karen looks down, wondering if this fate was maybe not kinder than what is in store for the rest of them.

The second was, I wish Frank was there. It was genuine enough that she was briefly surprised, but not for long. It was, after all, completely true: of all the people she knew, Frank seemed like the best suited to rescuing people from blood-thirsty gangsters, and against her best judgment she had started to feel— safe, knowing he was out there, bringing hell right to the doorsteps of criminals.

Strange, how safety and danger could become twisted-entangled-unified, sometimes.

But Frank was not there. They were. Turk and her and all the nameless, innocent victims quivering behind her, voice breaking in useless supplications. People she had started to feel responsible for as soon as she had realized she was the most level-headed of them all — her, Karen Page, a human mess and a murderer.

Her, Karen Page, powerless to save any of them.

There was nothing to do to hide the blinking red light attached to Turk's ankle. Nothing that could be said that would placate their captors long enough for help to come.

Nothing that could be done to save him.

A blade was drawn from its sheath — it glinted in the low light, cold as iron, cold as steel. The man knelt in front of them, pinning Turk's ankle to the ground one handed and letting the knife rest on his skin, just a second before he started cutting.

Blood welled up under the sharp edge. Turk cried out, trying and failing to drag himself back.

Then, a gunshot — Karen wondered, for a second, if another of the screaming people at her back had been silenced by a bullet through the skull, before the knife fell from limp fingers and the gangster slumped forward with a single hole through his forehead.

Karen scrambled away from her kidnappers and looked back with them, shock and hope and terror fighting for the control of her mind, and as she lifted her eyes she saw—

Black boots, leaving bloody footprints—

Bullet casings, falling to the ground, all too loud despite the chaos around—

Dark clothing, as if the shadows themselves had decided to fight against the corruption—

A riffle, held between bruised fingers, bloody finger resting on the trigger—

A skull, white against a backdrop of darkness, the sight made all the more jarring by the blood splattered over it—

Frank.

A wave of relief washed over her, drowning all the fear and the anger and the regrets, only leaving behind it the knowledge that things were going to be alright, but first they were going to get a lot worse.

And then she yelled, “Get down!” and lunged to the ground herself, dragging Turk with her, seconds before bullets started flying from both side. Some ricocheted on the walls or the ground and briefly illuminated the Punisher in a shower of sparks, throwing hard shadows on his face. Each of his shots struck true; one shot, one kill.

Karen crawled on the floor, scrambling for cover from the firefight. She hid behind a pillar, curled on herself, closed her eyes, and counted in her head.

Shot, shot, reload. Shot, shot, reload. She could almost follow his path through the room by the echo of bullet casings falling, the screaming, the pounding of feet as gangsters tried to get away from the massacre. None went very far.

Silence fell and she kept counting. The sudden absence of sound, where they had just been so many of them, was not enough to make her open her eyes.

Step, step, step, stop. She could imagine him checking each of his victim for signs of life. A shot; agonized groaning stopped short. A mercy killing, if such thing could be said of anything a man like Frank Castle ever did.

Step, step, step, stop. She could feel the weight of his gaze on her bent neck. Could hear the shifting of clothes as he knelt in front of her, stretched his hand toward her and stopped short of her hair. The silence was deafening, barely broken by the occasional whimpering of the other victims.

His hand ever so slowly came to rest on the top of her head. Softly, Frank said, “Hey.”

She lifted her head, slightly, enough that she could look at him in all his blood-splattered glory. His eyes were large and dark, full of something much like fear — she had never known him to be afraid before. Except maybe once, lying on the floor of her apartment in the shaking seconds after shots were fired through her windows, his weight pinning her down — holding her down — and eyes scanning his surroundings, jumping from side to side like that of a wolf backed in a corner.

“Hey,” She replied, barely above a sigh. His expression softened, lost some of its manic edge. She wanted to tell him— something, but she couldn't, for the life of her, find what to say. She didn't want to tell him he was dead to her. Didn't want to tell her she forgave him.

He could apparently read this on her face, or in her eyes, or in the way she shifted, halfway through breaking away from his touch or leaning into it, she couldn't say. He gently pressed on her head until she was resting against his shoulder, one of his hand petting her hair reassuringly and the other rubbing her back. His leather jacket smelled like gun smoke and blood, but everything of his did, in the end, so she had a hard time bringing herself to care about it.

“You're okay, now, hear me?” He whispered into her ear, as soft as his voice ever got. “You're safe. You all are.”

She sighed, a quivering, wet thing, and wondered who he was trying to reassure: him or her. Maybe both.

She watched him kill people before, and still each time all she saw was a good man pushed to his breaking point. She started to wonder if, maybe, she had made him that way, with half-coherent pleas for mercy when there was place for none.

She started to wonder him maybe it simply took a killer to tame a killer. Maybe all it took was gunpowder fingers clutching his arms hard enough to leave bruises, tears shed on his jacket that's as most leather as it is blood and rust. A little show of foolish, fearless trust.

You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed.

Karen took one last deep breath of his awful-familiar scent, wiped her tears on her sleeves, and got to her feet.

“You have a job to do,” She said, sounding more sure than she felt. “And so do I.”

He looked at her, searching for something — answers, maybe — in her eyes. What he found there seemed to satisfy him because he nodded, once, said, “Ma'am,” and left as he came — in stride, combat boots leaving a trail of blood in his wake, rifle resting against his chest.

She couldn’t quite begrudge Frank for the deaths. It was, after all, as much her fault as his, for wishing him there.

She couldn't find it in herself to feel guilty about it, either.

Karen squared up her shoulders, looked around the room and said, “The way down is clear. Let's get out of there.”

[briangroth27]

Spider-Man: Far From Home Review

This is my 200th original blog! I’m happy to make it about one of my favorite fictional characters and I’m glad to report that Spider-man: Far From Home is an absolute blast! I loved it and can’t wait to see more of Peter (Tom Holland) and his corner of the MCU. They did a great job of retaining the well-developed interpersonal relationships of Homecoming while upping the stakes and taking Peter and his classmates on a tour of Europe.

Full Spoilers…

Peter’s journey from street-level Friendly Neighborhood Spider-man to full-blown international superhero Avenger takes a solid step here, with Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) drafting him into a battle with Elemental beings from a parallel universe. At first I thought it was kinda lame of Fury to be so all-in on high school junior Peter Parker suiting up instead of helping Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhaal) fight the Elementals himself—I’ve always thought the MCU’s reliance on SHIELD to bring heroes together rather than the heroes teaming up by themselves made them less altruistic in a way, plus why do we need Fury if he’s just going to sit on the sidelines and point heroes at obvious threats?—but then I realized they were playing Fury as the parent or invested teacher in a high school movie. So, forcing Peter to help in the battle with the Elementals was their take on that kind of character encouraging a kid to step up and make the most out of their potential. He even goes so far as to ruin Peter’s vacation to get him to take his “job” seriously, and looking at him that way—with the Spider-films functioning as superhero movies by way of John Hughes—his role works really well (much like Tony Stark’s role as a parent who could say no to Spider-man in Homecoming). I also liked that Fury did agree to help Peter keep his identity a secret to an extent—that was reasonable of him—and "Night Monkey" was a fun gag (I wonder if he’ll don that simian alter ego again, given how this movie ends).

I liked that Peter’s anxiety over telling MJ (Zendaya) how he felt affected his Spider-sense—it seemed like a realistic parallel to being so stressed out that you literally worry yourself sick—and this worked much better than Spider-man 2’s Peter losing his powers just because he didn’t want to be Spider-man anymore. Making his “Peter Tingle’s” (lol!) function related to his stress and emotions also leaves the door open for his Spider-Sense to fail again, which is a nice dramatic bomb waiting to go off. Another dramatic bomb I’d like them to detonate is letting Peter realize that Tony wasn’t all great and did screw a lot of people over. Both Mysterio and Vulture made valid points about Tony and it wouldn't be a betrayal of Peter's Stark-adoration to recognize that he was a flawed person; it'd be the responsible, grown-up thing to do. Much like in Homecoming, I do worry that the MCU is playing Peter as Tony Stark's successor and heir apparent too much without fully exploring what we know to be the truth about Tony. I don’t want Peter to be the next Iron Man—he should be the first self-made Peter Parker instead—but it was a nice moment to see him take the steps of designing his new suit (even if I was hoping it’d be the classic one). Karen was fun and useful as someone for Peter to talk to in the last film, but I didn’t miss her in his new suit since he had Happy (Jon Favreau), Ned (Jacob Batalon), and MJ. I liked that Peter got to put his science skills to use and design his own web attacks instead of Stark gifting everything to him, though I’ll concede that the "moment" of Peter picking up the holo-designers did have a significant impact. Still, I loved him walking away from the Avengers in Homecoming (though I wish he hadn't gotten the Stark suit back) and I hope he eventually walks away from Stark Industries too instead of inheriting it or something. I want him at Horizon Labs and/or creating Parker Industries as a startup, inventing tech that helps the little guy instead of creating global defense networks. Speaking of, EDITH (Dawn Michelle King) was a fun addition to the film and Peter's mistakes with it felt appropriately teenager-esque (in a heightened superhero way, of course). I liked that it was way too much for him to handle and that he tried to get rid of it. I wish he’d destroyed it in the end, though my initial impression was that it’s essentially neutered now since all the drones are down and, given his reaction to seeing into everyone else’s phones, we can trust that he won’t use it that way again.

On the whole, the Spider-man films are the most enjoyable in the MCU (I also love that so much of their screentime is about Peter’s non-superhero life; we don’t get to see that from many other MCU heroes), but ignoring major dramatic moments keeps them from topping the Cap films as the MCU’s best. My biggest disappointment here is that we didn't—and apparently won't—see the fallout from May (Marisa Tomei) finding out that Peter is Spidey. I would’ve thought she’d be concerned about how being a superhero will affect his future (not to mention his safety), though I guess not since she fully encourages him to take his suit to Europe (also playing into that "embrace your potential" parental space Fury operates in). Was there a period where she worried about him before they came to this "everything is fine!" place? Did they compromise on ground rules for his superheroics vs. getting his homework done? The fallout from that reveal was a necessary piece of their arcs and it’s a mistake to skip it. I wish we hadn't had to detour into Infinity War after Homecoming (or that May walking in on him in the suit had also been Peter’s introductory scene in IW) and that we could've seen more of Peter and May's paths to get to this point.

Regardless, I liked seeing a new role for May now that she's in the know. It would've been nice to use that role to help give Peter advice or something, but it’s OK that that mainly manifested in her pushing him towards being a hero (and giving him an alibi to ditch the trip). Peter asking her for pointers on how to tell MJ he liked her would've been a solid route to take too (like when she helped him get ready for the dance in Homecoming), and it could’ve been a chance to bring up Uncle Ben and how he first told May about his feelings. I love that life for Peter and May hasn't ended with Ben’s death, but it would be nice to directly reference him. Continuing to mourn him would've been too much with Peter also mourning Stark's death (and it would've made Happy and May's flirtation awkward), but both Peter and May have clearly moved on so it would be OK to reference him without always being a downer. Ben’s initials on Peter’s briefcase were a nice subtle touch, but my friend pointed out that the suitcase getting blown up should’ve had more meaning to May and Peter instead of getting played off as joke (“Where’s your luggage? Oh right; it got blown up!”). Even a moment to say that physical things don’t matter when they can remember Ben and live as he did would’ve been enough. Speaking of Happy and May, I thought they were cute and I like where it's going (it if does go anywhere). At one point I thought not Snapping May would’ve been a way to bring the classic May into the MCU, but I wouldn’t have liked putting her through five years of hell with Peter having vanished. I like this May much better than the classic one who might have a heart attack just by finding out that Peter is Spider-man, and taking him away for that long probably would’ve led to that version so I’m glad they didn’t. I liked May helping the homeless shelter rather than sitting at home worrying about Peter being Spider-man: it’s nice to see her being a hero in her own right. I wonder if that job will bring us Mr. Negative sometime down the line; he could make things even worse for Spidey's rep.

Speaking of, this was an excellent rendition of Mysterio! I can't believe I didn't realize how perfect a villain he is for an era full of Fake News, where our leaders lie to us so casually and very few citizens bother to fact-check what they say. I hope he’s not dead and I don’t believe it. Faking that death would be a hard needle to thread with people clearly believing that he died a hero—so there must be a body, right?—but I’m sure there are ways around that. If he really is gone, what a way to go out! I definitely didn't expect him to announce Peter's secret to the world, but I'm glad they did: that’ll open up a lot of story potential and we’ve seen Peter do the secret identity thing in seven movies now; we can do one where he fights to put the genie back in the bottle and has to deal with the fallout. Gyllenhaal was very good in the role—the perfect mix of heroism, menace, and self-important ridiculousness—and while I knew he was a villain, he had me wishing that he wouldn't follow his comic book roots. I liked that he was the adult who let Peter slack and indulge in what he wanted rather than what was (arguably) best for his future (and certainly best for the world), and their chemistry allowed for a quick development of their brotherly bond. I liked the idea I saw online a while back about Quentin Beck having been a special effects guy on the "really old movies" Peter is always referencing who lost his job because of CGI, but his backstory here was so much better and it was very cool how they tied him and his cronies into the history of the MCU. I'm also so happy we got a comics-accurate costume for him! They really drove home the point that it would be impossible to fight Mysterio if you didn't have Spider-Sense and the sequence showcasing that was fantastic. Yes, that CGI was noticeably CGI, but given how he creates his illusions and the fact that it's a filter over real-world dangers, I thought it totally worked. The point wasn’t to create a photo-realistic illusion at that moment anyway, as there were several images that didn’t make logical sense in the “real world:” Beck was trying to scare and disorient Peter, getting him to hurt himself on real-world dangers, and the kid fell for it. I've never seen that threat level from this character before and that was a standout sequence of the entire MCU. I'm sorry that it looks like Sandman, Hydro-Man, Molten Man, and Cyclone are just illusions in this universe, but the Buzzfeed theory the gang finds means they could still be out there. Maybe Mysterio based the Elementals on them in the first place!

I'm of two minds about Nick Fury in this film. On one hand, I like the role he played in Peter's life here. On the other, the post-credits reveal that he was actually Talos (Ben Mendelsohn) acting as Fury while the real Nick was on vacation undercut the genuinely interesting character development Fury got. I really liked that he went from knowing everything about the world to knowing nothing. It's also more impressive if Mysterio dupes the real Fury instead of a stand-in. If Talos was sending Fury regular reports, then both those things are still at least halfway true, but it's not as effective or clean IMO. I’m glad to know Fury is a human who needs a vacation sometimes—the always alert, always prepared, always badass character the early MCU films painted him as would get boring and one-dimensional—but with these character developments maybe this wasn’t the best time to play the Skrull card. I hope the Skrull reveal is a one-time gag about Fury taking some time off (which does explain his insistence that Peter jump into the battle instead of doing it himself) and not a prelude to Secret Invasion. There just isn't time in these movies to sacrifice a whole film's worth of character development for a Skrull reveal. Secret Invasion would totally work in an MCU show, but the films aren’t like the comics where we have decades of time spent with the real characters plus a significant amount spent with their replacements; if they decide a character was a Skrull for an entire movie, that’s like a ninth of their total MCU screentime and development (if not more) erased.

I was happy that we got to spend a lot more time with MJ in this film. She's awesome, Zendaya plays her perfectly, and I really like this direction for her character! Her interest in the morbid history of everything is very endearing and I also like her obsession with telling the truth. At first I thought that might be a fun and interesting challenge for her once she found out about Peter (a twist the trailers shouldn't have revealed...classic Sony!), but now I'm thinking it could drive her towards journalism like in the Ultimate Comics universe. I would love to see her, Peter, and Ned team up to prove Peter's innocence and tell the world what really happened (while covering up Pete’s ID, which would bring that challenge aspect back to her). I liked that she played an integral role in discovering the truth about Mysterio and that she figured out Peter was Spider-man on her own; now I'd like to see that applied to her future. Her burgeoning relationship with Peter was sweet and felt well-developed given how long they’ve known each other; they are very cute together and their first kiss felt very teen-realistic. I can't wait to see how they work as a couple! With Midtown’s mascot being a tiger, I wonder if we'll get the "Face it, Tiger..." moment at some point.

Ned and MJ's low-key competition about knowing Peter's secret was fun too. I'm glad Ned has grown out of wanting to tell everyone Peter's secret (though that did create some fun drama and obstacles we wouldn't have gotten from the more responsible Peter by himself). I really like his friendship with Peter (and Batalon’s rendition of Ned) and even though he didn't get to be the Man in the Chair this time around, they could easily bring that back next time to help clear Pete's name. Ned and Betty's (Angourie Rice) trip-long summer romance was a funny subplot and a nice nod to their comic book marriage. I'm glad Betty got more screentime here, even if it's still weird to me that she's so visually patterned after Gwen Stacy (if they are saving Gwen for Spider-Gwen, I'm all for it!). I loved that the school news reports Betty and Jason (Jorge Lendeborg Jr.) anchor are still so hilariously (and realistically) bad! They were the perfect vehicle to recap The Blip and I really liked how it was handled. This film isn't the place to look at the massive problems such seismic shifts in the global population would cause, but I firmly believe the MCU needs to address them somewhere (Agents of SHIELD and the other shows would be my choice). They could get literal years of great drama exploring the fallout of both snaps, the global upheaval, the extremes surviving heroes went to, surprising heroic turns from villains that were left behind, etc. and while I'm glad they didn't just erase Thanos' Snap, it's a massive missed opportunity not to mine the fallout for all it's worth somewhere. Global changes like this should be felt in everything going forward, even if they're not the main focus. Still, the kids’ frustration that they had to take their midterms over again and the weirdness over some kids having aged five years while the rest of them didn’t worked perfectly for the corner of the MCU this movie was playing in. Those felt like realistic teen complaints and they’re all I needed from this film in terms of the Blip.

Flash (Tony Revolori) was funny and I liked the surprise beat at the end about his parents not arriving at the airport to welcome him back. His adoration of Spider-man and jerkiness to Peter is still a fun combination too, though I would like to see Peter ruminate on that dichotomy a little more. Give Peter a moment where he feels like he’s getting one over on Flash because his bully idolizes his alter ego or something, then pull the rug out from under him with Flash being Flash (they almost have this moment here, but it’s more about establishing Flash’s Spider-fandom than Peter really considering/laughing at it). Still, I can't wait to see how he reacts to the knowledge that Peter is Spider-man! The teachers (J.B. Smoove, Martin Star) were great again too! Peter has one of the best supporting casts in the MCU and this film was no different. Mr. Harrison's tragic and over-shared love life was great fun, as was science teacher Mr. Dell being convinced the Elementals were the work of witches. Even though they do care about the students, the teachers being so inept goes a long way towards justifying how easy it is for Peter to slip away to do his hero thing. It’s also very funny; I wouldn’t change a thing! I liked that they made a point of joking that there had been very little science on this science club trip, but as excuses to get them to Europe go, it didn't bother me at all that they never got to study science.

I was delighted to see JK Simmons return as J. Jonah Jameson! That was a great bit and the evolution of the character into a Fox News-styled conspiracy theorist pundit who peddles lies is a perfect direction to take the character. I can't wait to see where he goes next! It would make total sense for him to hire the Scorpion (who already wants revenge on Spidey) or Kraven to take down the "menace" of Spider-man (perhaps as a dry run for the Sinister Six) in this context. I'm also wondering if we'll finally hear "With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility" as a rebuke to JJ from Peter: with such a large platform that commands power and implies trustworthiness, Jonah (and the press in general) has a responsibility to tell the truth, especially in an age where people will believe anything. As bad as our leaders are, the press enabling them by publishing conspiracy theories and not calling lies out as lies is an equally enormous problem and that would be an excellent “villain” to tackle in the next Spider-man. I wonder if they’ll let Peter re-establish his secret ID, or if he’ll end up accepting his pubic status as a way of showing he’s different from the liar leading the Daily Bugle.

The world of this film was great and I'm eager to see more of Peter's corner of the MCU. I liked that they continued to emphasize the diversity of the real world through Peter’s classmates; we definitely need more of that (in addition to getting more diverse characters as leads). I thoroughly enjoyed the acting from everyone in the cast. The pacing was perfect and they balanced the romantic drama, decisions about Peter's future, action, comedy, and stakes very well! There was a cool variety of fight scenes and I really liked Peter working to secure buildings and civilians while Mysterio took on the Elementals. The CGI was great and well-used. Michael Giacchino’s score was excellent once again! I really like his orchestral version of the 60s Spider-man cartoon theme (and hope we get a similar rendition of the 90s X-men theme for their reboot), as well as the other themes Giacchino developed for this series. The pop culture songs they used are great, but they shouldn't shy away from songs today's kids like as well. As a kid in the 90s, I listened to songs from the 60s on an oldies station along with current music so it doesn't bother me that Peter's music also spans decades, but there should be a more even mix of the two. I’ve seen comments online about how using modern music would date the film, but a major reason the 80s classics are “timeless” is because the people who grew up with them now use them in their films. Peter and his tastes shouldn’t be limited to what a 30-40 year old thinks is cool; they should be what the current teens think are cool.

I wonder how Peter being unmasked will affect Vulture for keeping his ID a secret, to say nothing of how it's going to wreck his personal life. This should be a seismic shift in his status quo and I hope they don't skip over it again like with May finding out. Maybe Black Cat could help Peter navigate the “criminal” lifestyle and make things even more complicated for him when he’s seen hanging out with an actual thief. Maybe Peter will get snarkier because of all this (since these movies are already so funny I didn’t notice his lack of quips until I saw author Gail Simone mention it on Twitter, but this turn of events could be a way to sharpen his comedy a bit). How will it affect May? Regardless of my (ultimately small) misgivings with certain aspects of this Peter’s development, Tom Holland is excellent in the role and they're telling their story very well, so I’m happy and excited to see as many adventures as he’s willing to suit up for! Who knows; maybe they can make Miles Morales the self-made, homemade Spidey instead of Pete. If he were Peter's contemporary instead of his multiverse counterpart here—do their team-up like a buddy cop movie with them as competing teenage Spider-men—they could make a statement out of Peter getting handed the keys to Tony’s kingdom while Miles has to resort to homemade methods, which would be pretty cool and socially relevant.

Whatever the future of the MCU has in store for Peter, I can't wait to see it! Far From Home is an absolute blast that's neck-and-neck with Homecoming for best live-action Spider-man film (Into the Spider-verse is still the best Spider- (and superhero) film overall) and you should definitely see this while it's in theaters!

 Check out more of my reviews, opinions, and original short stories here!

[briangroth27]

Halloween (2018) Review

This was great! They accomplished an awesome, iconic fall/Halloween feel to Haddonfield in the look and tone of the movie and I couldn’t ask for more on that front. This was scary, just the right amount of funny, very well-acted, and overall an absolute blast. This was the first Halloween that I saw in theatres and it did not disappoint! I can’t wait to watch this again when it comes out on blu-ray this week!

Full Spoilers…

A while back I read a comment online stating that Halloween had accidentally become the Choose Your Own Adventure of horror franchises, and that’s very true and pretty cool. Don’t like where one storyline has taken you? Go back and pick a new thread (there are five so far: Halloween 1978, 2, & 4-6, Halloween 78, 2, H20 & Resurrection, Halloween 3, Rob Zombie’s Halloween 1-2, and now Halloween 78 & Halloween 2018. Before seeing this, my preferred continuity was Halloween 78, Halloween 2, & H20—those three make for a really solid Laurie arc—but I think Halloween 78 & 18 has become my favorite. We lost nothing by making Michael (James Jude Courtney, Nick Castle) and Laurie (Jamie Lee Curtis) unrelated with the exclusion of Halloween 2 from the new canon IMO. It’s more mythical if he's only fixated on her because she happened to come by his house one day, as if dropping off the keys to the Myers house was her being sent into a dragon’s lair. Laurie happening to invade his territory, thereby incurring his wrath, is more in line with the neighborhood kids’ tales about the house being haunted and Michael being the boogeyman too.  Also, "he needs to kill the women in his family" is a motive begging for explanation, and I’d rather not know why he does what he does. Michael just being evil without any rhyme or reason is much better and scarier.

This installment takes the best parts of H2 (Michael stalking the streets on Halloween in classic fashion) and combines them with Laurie becoming a fighter like in H20, which were exactly the elements I wanted out of this. Jamie Lee Curtis was fantastic! I do wish we'd gotten more about Laurie herself rather than just how her choices affected her daughter Karen (Judy Greer) and granddaughter Allyson (Andi Matichak)—H20 may’ve been slightly better about getting her to open up on that front—but I was satisfied with what we saw. I was sad Laurie’s life was so consumed by her fear of Michael (the moment where she has a nightmare of the Shape returning was a perfect encapsulation of that), but after watching H20 again it’s apparent she was never going to have a rosy life after what she went through in the original. Still, I'm glad this one showed her at least trying to have happiness and you could tell she did find some with Allyson whenever she could get into her life. I also feel like if you were to watch H20 you’d get a glimpse at how Laurie raised Karen before losing custody. It was also so cool to see Laurie truly ready for Michael’s return! I loved how Laurie's plans and preparation come together and watching the Strode women fend off Michael as a family was perfect.

I liked Karen, even though she was so against Laurie (and therefore automatically wrong, given the genre and franchise). It was nice to see Judy Greer get more to do than just be the mom, and her big moment at the end of the movie did not disappoint at all. What a cool way to prove that she was still her mother’s daughter! Her husband Ray (Toby Huss) was also very entertaining and very ‘dad.’ Both of them played off of Curtis and Matichak really well.

Allyson was very likable as well and a great lead for the younger cast. I liked that she was capable and level-headed, though I think it might have been better if the podcast investigation into Michael had been her project: an attempt to bring Michael out of the shadows to explain him, thus freeing Laurie from her fear of unknowable evil while simultaneously getting to know her grandmother’s most guarded side better. That would've continued the theme of the Strode women protecting each other nicely, and would’ve made sense with the much warmer relationship Allyson and Laurie had vs. Karen and Laurie’s more standoffish one.

I liked most of Allyson’s friends and they all felt like real teens. Vicky (Virginia Gardner) working as a babysitter was a nice tie back to the first movie and she was truly likable despite only being in a few scenes; I was sorry to see her go. Dave (Miles Robbins) brought an entirely different vibe to his character than anyone else and it worked really well. Oscar (Drew Scheid), was the classic "nice guy" (with all associated negatives attached) and got some funny lines. I’m glad they had Allyson ditch him when it became clear he wasn’t just being her friend. Cameron (Dylan Arnold) turning out to be a jerk like the rest of his family really surprised me and I wondered why they needed that at first. I think it's supposed to create the idea that you are your family, paralleling Allyson being a fighter in the end, just like Karen and Jamie. On that level, the seemingly dropped plotline of Allyson’s love life works really well. No review of the young cast would be complete without mentioning Julian (Jibrail Nantambu), who was absolutely hilarious and played off of Vicky perfectly. My whole theater was cracking up at him!

The podcast journalists (Jefferson Hall, Rhian Rees) were likeable in their short roles (mainly serving to get us up to speed on Michael), but the movie might’ve been tighter without them. It’s not hurt for their presence at all, but like I said above maybe their podcast would’ve been a stronger element as Allyson’s project. I did like that their goal of understanding Michael was scoffed at by almost everyone. I’m with Laurie: there isn’t anything deeper to understand about him (that’s what’s so scary!). Will Patton was good as Haddonfield’s Sheriff and I liked how they wove him into the events of the first movie. His attempt to just kill Michael and not arrest him here made all the sense in the world. Dr. Ranbir Sartain (Haluk Bilginer), the "new Loomis," didn't seem necessary at first, but he didn't hurt the movie for me. I liked him as an example of how warped you could get by staring into the eyes of evil for too long and trying to understand it rather than eliminate it. I didn’t expect him to be so crazy at all, but the twist that he wanted to help Michael worked for me. There’s a classic horror vibe to Sartain: the Lovecraftian idea that if you stare true unknowable evil in the face you’ll lose your mind (or you’ll die, like the podcasters), and I liked that he added to Michael’s Boogeyman mythos in that way.

Michael himself was an extremely intimidating force, even stripped of (most) of his supernatural trappings (he still appears stronger than a normal human). I liked that the movie brought up how unimpressive Michael's kill count was now that none of the sequels are in continuity. Letting us see that most people didn’t think much of him as a boogeyman anymore was a great way not only to make it so people would underestimate him, but so that Laurie’s fears would seem even more unfounded. Still, they definitely made up for the loss of all his victims here and having only killed a few people in the first one didn't make him any less scary! I always like Michael's moments of creatively arranging the bodies (someone online referred to it as Michael’s ‘crafting’ and I love that). I do wish there’d been more of that, but what we got was good: the jack o’ lantern was really clever and the ghost was a nice call back to the original. When this was first announced, I wanted them to really dive into the Samhain connection, but now I much prefer not knowing anything about Michael or why he does what he does.

The movie does have a lot of elements of the first, fourth, and seventh movies, but it never felt like a retread and always felt fresh. Shout-outs to the rest of the franchise felt like bonuses, not moments that derailed everything to stop and look back. The tone is perfectly tense and scary, and the genuinely funny moments are great tension breakers rather than tension-shattering missteps. The updated score was great: it was different enough to feel modern and new, but similar enough to feel like coming home.

I think the biggest drawback here is the lack of a definite ending. Don’t get me wrong, I was absolutely satisfied with this movie, but I wish we’d gotten confirmation that Michael had indeed been killed instead of another missing body and hearing his breathing over the credits. I don’t really have any interest in Michael continuing from this point and I wanted to see Laurie win for real. I hope they don't make a sequel with Myers; more Laurie aside, the one thing I really wanted was to see their battle and get true closure to his character. I wish they’d the courage to really end him in this film instead of leaving the door open for a sequel, box office be damned. If the next movie just features Myers returning again (and likely killing Laurie again), that’s about the least exciting thing I can think of for these films. However, if they want to pull the trigger on making someone related to Laurie evil like Michael—which they almost did in 4/5 but backed out—I'd be interested. After all, Allyson still gripping the knife at the end was certainly foreboding (and would’ve been even moreso if she’d been the one trying to understand Michael through the podcast, just like Sartain lost his mind doing the same). If there’s a virulent element to Michael’s purest evil, I’d be down for it. As much as I loved the Strode women taking on Michael, it would be awesome if the next Halloween was about Laurie fighting for Allyson’s soul as she started to go down an evil path.

Watching this, I couldn’t help but imagine what Blumhouse could do to revitalize another classic slasher franchise. I’d love to see them reunite Robert Englund and Heather Langenkamp for a new Nightmare on Elm Street, following the original series of films. Nancy did die, but what if she became a Dream being too and returned to look out for the next generation? She is a fighter who’s “into survival” after all, and she was able to drag so many things in and out of dreams in the first movie that it’s a fairly short path to letting her achieve the same semi-immortal status Freddy has. I feel like an arc of her leaving Heaven (or however they want to characterize the afterlife) to fight her way into the dream realm to defend Elm Street’s current kids and finally face off against Freddy on equal footing would be a fantastic hook and just as satisfying as Laurie and Michael’s face-off. It would be sad to lose Dream Warriors, but what if the gotcha! ending of the first film was Nancy and Co. being trapped in the Dream Realm, but she fought her way out? That’d be an easy way to rewrite anything you wanted in the sequels.

Anyway, Halloween is an exceptional slasher and easily the second-best entry into the franchise; I’d say it might even rival the first film given how active and awesome it lets Laurie be. Even though I didn’t get everything I wanted out of the Michael/Laurie face-off and I think the podcast subplot could’ve been more tightly bonded to the Strodes, I loved this movie and I’m excited to see it again. If you’re a Halloween fan you’ll love this and even if you aren’t familiar with this particular franchise, you should definitely check this out!

Check out more of my reviews, opinions, and original short stories here!